1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for attaching a gasket, which is applied to a panel-mounted connector or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a type of connector that is mounted on a panel, or a panel-mounted connector for short. In general, the type of connector is actually mounted on a panel in the following way. A gasket made of an elastic material is housed in a ring-shaped groove provided in the front face of a flange of a connector housing. The gasket is interposed between and compressed by the flange and the peripheries of an opening, which is formed in the panel in order to mount the connector.
When the connector is actually mounted on the panel to make this kind of panel-mounted connector, the gasket sometimes falls off the flange. For this reason, some measures have been taken in many cases to deal with the problem of this falling off as being disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Official Gazette No. 2004-327169.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show one example of such measures.
A panel-mounted connector of the example comprises a connector housing 110; unillustrated terminal metal fittings housed inside the connector housing 110; and a gasket 130 housed in a ring-shaped groove 112 formed in the front face of a flange 111 of the connector housing 110.
The gasket 130 includes a ring-shaped gasket body 131 housed in the ring-shaped groove 112 of the flange 111; locking jutting pieces 132 each including a through-hole 132a; and locking arms 134 each including a locking stub 134a. The locking jutting pieces 132 are provided as jutting out of the inner periphery of the gasket body 131. The locking arms 134 are provided as jutting out of the outer periphery of the gasket body 131. The gasket 130 is fixed to the flange 111 in the following manner. The gasket body 131 is fitted to the ring-shaped groove 112 of the flange 111. The through-holes 132a of the locking jutting pieces 132 are fitted respectively to locking pins 116, which are provided as jutting out of the flange 111 at inner positions than the ring-shaped groove 112. The locking stubs 134a of the locking arms 134 are fitted respectively to locking holes 114a of respective receiving portions 114, each provided on a side portion of the flange 111.